


Through The Cracks of Reality

by ironii



Category: Glitch Techs (Cartoon), Homestuck
Genre: Crossover, Homestuck/Glitch Techs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26058406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironii/pseuds/ironii
Summary: Through the cracks of reality, a glitch slips through, and rips the remaining code of SBURB asunder.
Relationships: I might ? Add more relationships but likely won’t, Most of this is iust going to be platonic stuff, friendships and all that junk, obviously lmao - Relationship, with the exception of rose and kanaya
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	1. Through The Door

“Fiiiiiiiive!” Miko drawls, having sat upon an arm of one of the many couches, only to fall on her back, her blue and magenta hair splaying out beneath her whilst she pokes at her companion. “I’m so boooooooooreeeed.” She drawls out yet again, lazily reaching her hands to Five’s face to bat gently with. He obliges, slumping further down the couch so she could reach. “Uggggggh, why are slow days so- so-“ She lets out a noise of frustration, and for lack of a better word, yells “Slow!?” The declaration of agitation breaks the mundane and idle background noise, like a sharp crack of lightning in a gentle rain. It does nothing but earn a collection of sympathetic sighs.

Five, who normally would have been enjoying his time doing other activities, whether it be reading or playing his favorite cat game, found himself much in the same predicament as Miko. In fact, the majority of those in the area were facing that same issue. “I’m with you there Miko. Y’know, I’m glad we got to kick butt earlier this morning, but I _really_ wish we didn’t have to cut off the power for the whole town just for that one glitch.”

“What should we do? Phil said not to play any games so we don’t get any glitches in here, but-“ Miko sighs, dramatic, and melancholic. “Then what else do we do?!” She yells again, this time to try and placate her boredom, though it’s a failed attempt and doesn’t make her feel much.

From the other side of the room, a familiar voice bursts through, eliciting an eye roll at the mere sound of his voice. 

“Hey! Keep it down over here. _Some_ of us are trying to relax while we can. Not everyone has been grinding for exp like I have.”

Mitch mocks with his usual air of superiority. 

“Oh _can_ it, would you Williams? We are _trying_ to come up with something to do.” Miko bites back, though it’s notably half hearted.

“Oh, really?” A dry, humorless chuckle sounds from him. “Looks like you’re just laying around doing nothing, as per usual.” He retorts, earning a glare from Miko, and a calming pat from Five unto her arm. Miko considers fighting. She really does, because at least it’d be _something_ but aside from her pent up energy, Five didn’t seem to have any, and he just looked...tired. She didn’t want to cause any trouble for him. 

“Oh, whatever. C’mon Five, let’s get away from this griefer.” She glares at him one more time. Mitch opens his mouth to say something, until the alarm goes off. A blaring sound, indicating _another_ dangerous glitch, breaching the walls of reality. But how? Where? The lights flash red in warning. 

Elsewhere, in another universe, John Egbert reaches his hand towards the knob of the door to his new universe. It’s electrifying, sparks of energy joining the tips of his fingertips as they near the metal, almost as if it was buzzing with excitement. It’s then and there, that a glitch travels along the rainbow cracks of reality, following the spiderwebbed fissures that surrounded them. A green lightning zips, and consumes the door, causing John to yelp. Everyone looks at Jade, familiar with her green electricity, only for Jade to answer them with, “That’s not me. The green sun is gone. I don’t... I don’t have those powers anymore.” It’s somewhat solemn, but her expression was grave and focused, as if to tell them to pay attention to what mattered most. 

They all brace for an attack, an ominous wind blowing from the force of the glitched door, which was now shaking, its image becoming disjointed and split, only to look whole again. They all squint as the door becomes outlined with fuzzy colors, and seem to separate from itself. That is, until a wave of stillness hits. A low hum emanates from the door, and as John cautiously approaches the door, it slams open, a whirlwind sucking the group of humans and trolls in. 

Jade can feel this... familiarity. It was how she felt when she traveled through the fenestrated wall, into the yellow yard. But this was much faster than that. John held some sort of familiarity with it, and so had Dave. The feeling of time and space being bent was all too familiar, but it was no comfort. After all, they weren’t the ones responsible for any of this.

They all tumble out, gracelessly, and on to a white cold floor. They don’t even notice the gruff man standing there, aiming his hand and a dangerous-looking gauntlet at them. They talk quietly amongst themselves, checking eachother to see if anyone was hurt, half heartedly joking about whose fault it was; mostly just because they don’t know what’s going on now. No one, not even the seers themselves could have predicted this. Some of them are contemplating, sharing worried glances. Others are trying to laugh. But overall, they’re making normal (or close to normal conversation. The one with stubby horns has an odd vocabulary) and it’s then and there, that the man drops his gauntlet, and raises his eyebrows in surprise as one of them speaks to him. 

“Hey! Uh, do you happen to know where we are...?” A girl with circle rimmed glasses asks, confused but polite. 

Phil has to do a double take from his computer, to the girl. What had just happened?


	2. Anomaly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Glitch Techs try to find out who and what exactly these kids are, and the kids get to be kids.

Miko and Five, along with Mitch throw the door to Phil’s office, open, almost bumping into the group of teenagers standing in front of them. 

It’s an instinct for Dave, Jade, Kanaya and Dirk to ready their weapons when they hear the door slam open, though they are quick to remedy their mistake by putting their weapons down, somewhat easing the shocked faces of the other three teens. 

“Phil...? What is happening?!” Miko questions, starting slow and quieter, like she was trying to be cautious, only for her speech to speed up and become panicked. On a normal occasion, she’d have been excited for such an adventure, but she was just met with blades, a snarling dog girl with a gun, and a chainsaw, so she wasn’t too keen on the current situation. 

“I don’t know, Miko.” Phil says, confusion taking hold of his tone and rendering him to mumbling to himself, wondering how any of this went so... _wrong_. 

“Hey uh. You never answered my question.” Jade states firmly, putting her hands on her hips. Inhumanly green eyes sear into him, dragging him out of his thoughts. 

“Oh uh. Sorry. You’re at the Hinobi Glitch Tech’s Headquarters.” He says, a little too dumbfounded for his usual deadpan. “BITT, could you run a quick scan on them?“ 

The cheerful robot comes out from its hiding place, and begins to speak. “Of course!” A holographic grid appears, and passes through the group of teenagers. A couple of agonizing seconds later, BITT resounds with an enthusiastic hum of success. “Scan complete!” 

“Well? What’s going on BITT? What are they?” Phil whispers to the robot, just in case the teens weren’t just a complex group of glitched code. Jade, who, despite Phil’s attempts, could hear him speak, and only cocks her head to the side in curiosity with a raised eyebrow. 

“It appears that I am unable to determine whether or not they’re glitches, or civilians. I am sorry Phil.” This elicits an involuntary gasp from Miko, Five and Mitch, who frankly, everyone forgot was still there until they said something. 

“They’re clearly glitches, BITT, I don’t know how you can’t see that. Look at them! No normal person has dog ears, or gray skin, or whatever hairstyle that-“ He gestures towards Dirk. “Anime glasses wearing freak has.” Dirk frowns at that. 

“My apologies Mitch! But I cannot determine whether they are civilians or glitches. The scan dictates that they have both biological components alongside plixel components as well.” BITT replies with his unwavering cheerfulness.

“That kind of sounds like a possessor glitch.” Five chimes in. 

“Those traits do indeed signify the presence of a possessor glitch however, bear in mind that they emerged from the game as they are now.”

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT? WE AREN’T “GLITCHES” OR WHATEVER. WE’RE PEOPLE. AND GUESS WHAT ASSHOLE?” Karkat looks directly at Mitch, his brows furrowing together with his frustration. “NOT ALL PEOPLE HAVE TO BE HUMANS, SO STOP LOOKING AT US LIKE WE’RE CIRCUS ANIMALS. WE AREN’T SOME AMUSEMENT ATTRACTION FROM THOSE HOOFBEAST-SHIT CLOWN CONVENTIONS.” Karkat finishes, having spoken before anyone else could. Mitch looks taken aback at the response, in part because of Karkat’s absurd vocabulary, partially because his accent sounded like he was speaking in all caps, and also because he didn’t expect any glitch to speak like a person, nonetheless refer themselves as one. Dave puts a hand on his fellow Knight’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly in comfort. 

“Karkat, chill out man. He’s probably just scared and concerned for his friends or whatever, you know how it is. We all do. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a dick, there’s no way around it, and while we don’t necessarily have to ride him, because I don’t doubt we could take him, I mean seriously man, he looks like he would go absolutely bonkers, absolutely in-fucking-sane if his hair got a little wet. Speaking of, look how much hair gel this man has. His hair is a poor, innocent, small platinum colored duck and that hair gel is a fucking ocean, tossing and turning that little avian like it‘s in a spin cycle.” Dave whispers, having lost his point in the midst of the overwhelming presence that was Mitch’s hair.

“DAVE, AS _ENTHRALLING_ AS YOUR COMMENTARY IS ABOUT THIS DOUCHEBAG’S LACKLUSTER, OBNOXIOUS AND FRANKLY, OVER COMPENSATING HAIRSTYLE, I FEEL LIKE IT’S PRETTY IRONIC OF YOU TO POINT THAT OUT, SINCE DIRK’S HAIRSTYLE IS ALSO PRETTY FUCKING WEIRD AND CONSISTS OF THE SAME, IF NOT MORE, HAIR GEL, AND YOU TREAT THAT MAN‘S “AESTHETIC” LIKE IT’S GOD’S TREASURE TO THE FUCKING WORLD. ANYWAYS, THAT’S BESIDES THE POINT, WHICH IS ALSO THE ONE YOU SHOULD GET BACK TO, BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS ALREADY MOVED ON FROM THIS MOMENT, SO YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO PUSH FAST FORWARD ON YOUR RANT, STRIDER.” Karkat whispers back, to which Dave replies with,

“Alright, first, Dirk’s anime aesthetic is totally rad, and _is_ a treasure to this and every single _universe_ that it graces. Second... I’m sorry bro. In all seriousness, calm down, alright? He’s an asshole, but we can’t be starting shit. We don’t know anything about this world or what the fuck is going on here. Even if he’s not the strongest one, I get the feeling there’s more people here that’s back them up, and honestly? I think we’re all tired of fighting.” Dave whispers, calm and collected, but as monotone as he tried to be, he couldn’t hide the dull exhaustion in his voice. That’s enough to get Karkat to settle down. As they spoke, Phil had stopped Mitch from continuing the back and forth. 

“Well whatever you are doesn’t really matter right now. Until we figure out what happened, and so long as you don’t wreck anything, you can stay here. But do _not_ leave. If you do, other Glitch Techs from other towns might come over to hunt you down. You need to stay here, where it’ll be easier to explain, and where you’ll be better protected.” Phil states, already tired and back to his typical self. The shouting and the arguing was enough for him to figure that it didn’t matter, complex A.I or not. They were acting like people, and teenagers no less, and he wasn’t sure if he could (or would want to) deal with a fight with a bunch of angry kids with swords and guns. “So Mitch, you’re going to have to deal with them being here, and that means absolutely no fighting them.” He narrows his eyes. Despite his harsh tone, he did say it out of concern. Should they prove to be dangerous, he didn’t want any lives on the line.

Mitch only scoffs in begrudging acceptance, and looks away, arms crossed. “ _Fine._.” He replies, shifting his weight to one leg. “Whatever these... _“people”_ are, surely we need to at least find out who they are.” Mitch says. Miko and Five look at each other and for once, they agreed with Mitch. 

“Actually, yeah, that’s... a pretty good question. Who are you guys? I’m Five.” He says with a friendly, albeit, nervous smile. “And this here is-“ He gestures to the girl beside him. 

“Miko!” She answers for him. Just like that, the thick tension that was hanging in the air was breaking. “Oh, and that _rager_ -“ Miko gives a pointed look at Mitch. “Is Mitch.” She says with a smirk, eyeing his annoyed glance.

One by one, the kids introduce themselves, and at last, they’re smiling, some of them trying not to. But it’s a short lived victory, because Mitch speaks up again.

“Aargh! This isn’t what I meant. I _meant_ what game are they even from?” Mitch says, firmly keeping the belief they were glitches. 

“They were from something called uh-“ Phil squints, reading the faded lettering on the spine of the cover. “SBURB.” That immediately makes them all tense up. 

“SBURB? What’s that? I’ve never heard of that game before.” Miko comments. “What’s wrong?” Sympathy crosses her face as she recognizes their stiff discomfort. To her, it didn’t matter if they were real or not. They clearly _felt_ the way real people did. 

“SBURB, To Put It Short, I Something That Has Brought All Of Us Immense Pain. It’s Contents Are...Troubling To Say The Least. It Is Good That We Came Out, And...” Kanaya’s glance turns to the frozen computer screen, it seemingly unable to continue. “Halted The Progress Of SBURB Taking Place Again. Simply Put, It’s Best To Destroy That Disc, And Never Look Back.” 

“Like we’re going to trust you. If you _do_ turn out to be trouble, we can’t send you back to where you belong if we destroy that disc. For all we know, that game disc is perfectly fine and they’re lying.” The fury in Kanaya’s eyes is immeasurable. Kanaya would take a lot of things, but to invalidate their years worth of suffering wasn’t one of those things. 

“Mitch.” Phil warns. 

“OH 1T’S F1N3, DON’T WORRY. W3 DON’T N33D TO 3XPL41N 4NYTH1NG TO H1M.” Terezi spoke, slamming her cane on the ground in front of her and leaning on it, eyeing Mitch as she did so.

“She’s right, Kanaya.” Rose hooks her arm around Kanaya’s and rests her head on Kanaya’s shoulder, allowing Kanaya to rest her head on the top of Rose’s. The jade blood inhales deeply and exhales steadily. “Besides-“ Rose turns her gaze towards Miko and Five. “I would much rather figure out what exactly a “glitch” is and why you think we-“ She motions to her group. “Are one.” 

“Well can you do it _outside_ of my office.” Phil deadpans. That incurs a light chuckle and a nod. 

“Right. My apologies sir.” She nods politely at Phil before looking at the trio in front of them. “After you.” She says. Miko grins, waving them over alongside Five, with Mitch being shunted to the side. Jade walks alongside Miko, an apologetic expression on her face. 

“I’m so sorry for pointing a gun at you! It’s just instinct to aim a weapon at anything that might be a threat.” Jade says with a sheepish and guilty tone, her dog ears flat against her head. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it! You’re all good, and trust me, I get it. That sort of stuff just comes with the territory of dealing with living game creatures amirite?” Miko grins, to which Jade returns with one of her own.

“So! Let’s give you a quick crash course on glitches.” Five fiddles with his gauntlet a little, holographic images popping up from his palm. “Glitches are monsters made of plixels, which are the physical manifestation of pixels. These things are super dangerous, and appear when consoles get a little _glitchy_.” Five explains.

“We suck those suckers up using _these_ babies!” Miko presents her gauntlet, suiting up for demonstration purposes. “We trap ‘em in our gauntlets and then unload them in those thingies over there.” She points towards the desk at the center of the room.

“Just like Ghostbusters.” John whispers in a quiet awe. He wasn’t fond of his past interests as much as he used to be, but... the nostalgia. The fact that it was kind of real just awoke a part of him he didn’t even remember he had anymore.

“Although that doesn’t mean _all_ glitches are dangerous.” Five grins. “Alpha, come on out!” A gigantic mechanical robot appears, and it’s not long before Jade is absolutely fawning over it, with Dirk alongside her, curiously inspecting it. Jade wraps her arms around one of Alpha’s arms as he lifts her up, earning a giggle from the girl. 

“Ooh, ooh! Ally! Let’s fly!” Miko calls out, summoning her mount. She hugs the bird and gets on her back, soaring through the air, and landing back in the ground. Terezi walks, smelling the bird and grins with her wide, sharp toothed smile. 

“SH3 SM3LLS LOV3LY.” Terezi says, petting the birds head. Miko laughs, unsure if she meant Ally smelled delicious or if she meant Ally just smelled good in general. Either way, she wouldn’t question it.

“Thank you! I think!” A giggle bubbles forth from Miko before she begins stroking Ally’s neck and affectionately squeezing her cheeks. “Say ‘thank you’ Ally.” Miko coos. Ally squawks in response and rubs her head against Terezi’s hand. 

“As you can see, glitches like Ally and Alpha can become loyal friends!” Five says with a grin. 

“Who-ho-hoa! This is so rad!” Roxy exclaims, reaching out to pet Ally’s neck. “This stuff is, technically all code right? If so...” There’s an excitement and mystery that twinkles in Roxy’s eyes. “I think I can work with this. It’ll be like, Rogue of Void-ing squared.” She chuckles, though the statement raises an eyebrow from Five and Miko.

“What’s a “Rogue of Void-ing”?” Five asks, sending Alpha back to his gauntlet, leaving Jade to fall on the floor. Five inhales sharply, and winces, quick to help her up. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Oh! Okay, so, “Rogue of Void-ing” is like. Stuff that a Rogue of Void does, and a Rogue of Void, is me! But, more specifically, it’s a classpect, and to be honest, it’s this whole thing that I would have to infodump and I’m not sure if you guys wanna hear it.” The rogue replies, with a casual shrug. “But my sis can probably explain it better than me.” She wraps an arm around Rose’s shoulders who smiles up at Roxy. “Part of her whole thing is being reeeeal good at explaining stuff, and to be honest, classpects as I understand them now are kind of weird and arbitrary outside of their dope powers.” 

“Uhhhhhh _powers_? Five questions, his jaw slightly agape. A smile slowly creeps its way across his face, and it soon turns wide. “Dude, we would love to have that info, dumped on us!”

“Take it away Rose.” Roxy says, with a friendly wink. 

“Well, to be truthful, I too do not know exactly what classpects do and are, but from what I’ve gathered, they’re tittles given by SBURB that both match us who we are in terms of personality, but also challenge us on our flaws. It’s meant to help cultivate and reward us for reaching godtier.” Rose began to explain, though at the mere mention of the name “godtier” Miko and Five looked enthralled.

“Oooooohhh! That’s such a cool name!” Miko whispers to Five in a hushed excitement.

“Casspects compose of classes and aspects. Classes define how we control our aspect, and an aspect acts as an element.” The seer adds, producing her wands from her sylladex, and then creating images with them, light and all of the colors in its spectrum dancing in a spectacle to help illustrate her point.

“Ooh! It’s kinda like how games have classes and subclasses!” Miko exclaims with excitement. 

“That’s a close enough assessment, so yes, more or less, you are correct Miko.” She responds, almost glowing with her reply. Mostly because she actually was, as was the product of using her magic. “Classpects don’t have set abilities as far as I’m aware. The potential for abilities is nigh limitless, given that they fall within the rather loose definitions of classes and aspects, and it should be noted that all aspects have several connotations to them, so there’s quite a variety in terms of manipulation of ones aspect.” Rose looks at Five.” So, to answer your question Five, Roxy’s particular brand of “Rogue of Void” is someone who steals void, or, as one definition puts it, the lack of something, and redistributes it. What that means, is that Roxy can effectively create anything she pleases while also making something disappear. It would be like taking the non prefix from the word non-existent.” 

“Wha-wha-whaaaaat?!” Miko gasps, dramatic but genuine. “Gasp! That’s kinda like modding a gauntlet! When Ridley was here, she could do all sorts of awesome stuff like spawning stuff outta nowhere!” Miko is practically jumping now that she’s sent Ally back to her gauntlet. “How do you godtier? What else can you guys do? What are your classpects?” The girl grips Five by his shoulders and shakes him, using him to absorb the energy high she was getting from the excitement.

“Well, godtiering itself isn’t pleasant. Essentially, you merge with a dream version of yourself, which acts as an avatar for you whenever you sleep and visit your dreams. Your dream self can merge with other things first, namely sprites which act as guides to us. It’s how we get extra abilities and traits.” Rose glances briefly at Jade. “I’m also assuming that’s why your robot couldn’t tell if we were people or game constructs.”

“Ohhhhh. Is that why Jade has, uh.” Five seems a little nervous to ask Jade, as he wasn’t sure if in some way, it would have been insensitive to mention, but she assuages any fears he has by addressing his question herself. 

“Yep! My dog merged with my dream self and then when I godtiered, I got his ears and tail! And his sense of hearing and smell. So if you want to keep something a secret, stand about 10 feet away from me.” Jade winks. 

“Oh um, what about them?” Five gestures to the trolls. 

“OH, 1’LL ANSW3R TH1S ON3!” Terezi smiles her signature wide, sharp toothed grin and cackles with excitement. Their excitement before was amusing and fun to see. Their energy, simply put, was refreshing, and dare she think it, endearing. “W3 AR3 AL13NS! 1N YOU’R3 P3RSP3CT1V3 4T L34ST. 1 HON3STLY F1ND HUM4NS MUCH MOR3 AL13N TH4N US. YOU’R3 4LL JUST SO SQU1SHY 4ND P1NK ON TH3 1NS1D3.” 

“You’re _what_?!” Miko and Five yell together in shock, glossing over Terezi’s comment about human organs. 

“Okay, it’s one thing for glitches to be aliens, but you’re _real people_ aliens!” Five says, dumbfounded. “This day has been the weirdest but somehow one of the most mind blowing day ever.” 

Rose is about to go back to answering their questions before she’s interrupted by another voice.

“Hey guys. Did you find out what was- woah. Who are these guys? Why are some of them wearing pajamas?” Zahra asks, Haneesh, Nix and Bergy standing on either side of her. A few more minutes are delegated to introductions, explanations and idle conversation with the addition of shared enthusiasm over things like robots and coding.

“Yo, uh. I don’t mean to be the rain on this pretty hellacious parade we got going on, but where are we gonna sleep and how are we gonna eat?” Dave asks. 

“Can’t Roxy just do some of that Rogue of Void magic and make stuff appear for you guys?” Zahra questions. 

“Weeeeell, I’m still new to my powers. Making stuff is still pretty weird and wild for me, and all I can make right now are these funky cubes. And like, an alien egg but that’s not really relevant right now.” Roxy sheepishly smiles, heat burning at her ears in embarrassment. 

Her response renders the group to further ponder the living situation. 

“Oh!” Haneesh snaps his fingers at his epiphany. “We could probably bring you blankets and pillows.” 

“And I could try to get food from my papi and abuela’s food truck.” Five suggests. 

“Yeah, yeah! Let’s go with that! We should get things ready right now while we have the time to do stuff like this.” Miko says. 

“None Of You Have To Do This... So Thank You For Heping Us Despit That.”

“Yeah, no prob bob! It’s all cool.” Bergy replies with a friendly smile.

“Seriously, it’s fine. Besides, none of us have anything better to do at the moment. Almost the whole town has no power so we’re probably not gonna get any game glitches” Zahra adds.

“Oh, speaking of games, I have a new board game and a bunch of cards we could play with at home. You guys wanna use them to wait out the blackout?” Nix asks. There’s an agreement, some more enthusiastic than others, but it’s agreed upon all the same. 

After they confirmed their plan and enactment of said plan, they all return with pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags. Five hands out food, and once the forts of comfort and pillows have been built and the games have started, for once in a long long time, the children felt like children. They felt safe, and now that they thought about it, they were very, very tired. But they’d wait to sleep. Their day had barely just begun with their new friends after all.


End file.
